Quality Attributes of Milano Salami, an Italian Dry-Cured Sausage

Among dry-cured sausages produced in Italy, Milano salami is one of the most widespread. The purpose of the present work was to examine a wide range of analytical parameters to describe the chemical and physical characteristics of a set of 37 Milano salamis. Principal component analysis has been adopted, and the most relevant variables have been selected. Only 6 of 19 variables ( L *, modulus, pH, NaCl/moisture, moisture/protein, lactic acid) were used in the final chemometric model. The first two principal components were significant according to double cross validation and accounted for 84.8% of sample variance. A correlation ( p < 0.001) between principal component scores and sensory ratings, given by a panel of selected assessors, was obtained. On the basis of the correlation with sensory preference scores, the quantitative descriptive analysis profiles and quality scores for each sample were computed.